More very lazy cookies following on from my recent post about Pecan and Cinnamon Slice and Bake Cookies. I baked these in two halves – one batch for friends and toddlers coming round to play, one batch of dough left in the freezer for an emergency.
Boy did I have an emergency last week. Self inflicted of course, I allowed myself to be coaxed at the eleventh hour into auditioning for the BBC’s new baking show Great British Bake Off. I worked from 8.30pm to 2am last Friday to produce a sweet and a savoury item to take in to be judged. As a bonus I sliced up some of these cookies and threw in some cake pops too.
I will do a separate post shortly about what else I made for them and how the audition went (clue – you won’t be seeing me on tv anytime soon, at least not in that show).
Another reason for a lazy post today is that I was up last night burning the midnight oil on this weekend’s “Postcard from…” It’s a bit of a whacky one so I hope you will enjoy it. You won’t enjoy the food there – and when you read it, you’ll see why.
So today at least, enjoy these fragrant orangey biscuits. Out of the three batches of slice and bake biscuits I’ve made recently, these have disappeared the fastest. The original recipe from Australian Women’s Weekly was for lemon and cranberry but fan as I am of lemons, I think orange tastes much more comforting in this biscuit here. And I’m in need of a bit of that this week.
There’s a printable recipe sheet for these Orange and Cinnamon Slice and Bake Cookies below but here are some step by step pictures how I made them:
Using the food processor, mix the butter, icing sugar, orange zest and vanilla extract until light and fluffy. Tip into a large bowl and add the sifted flours, cranberries and rub mixture as if making shortcrust pastry until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
Spoon over the milk and bring the breadcrumb mixture together into a ball. Divide into 2-3 balls to make the mixture easier to manage. Knead the balls of dough on a floured surface until smooth then roll into logs around 6-7cm in diameter.
Wrap each log with parchment paper and place in a freezer bag in the fridge for about 1 hour until firm or freeze until needed (up to 1 month).
Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 160c and line a couple of baking trays with parchment paper.
When the logs have firmed up, unwrap them and using a sharp knife cut into slices 1cm thick. Place about 3cm apart on the baking trays and bake for around 18-20 minutes until just golden. Cool on wire racks.
Orange and Cranberry Cookies - Slice and Bake Style
Makes approx 48 cookies
Ingredients
- 250 g butter softened
- 200 g icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 300 g plain flour
- 75 g rice flour
- 50 g cornflour
- 1 tbsp orange zest finely grated
- 100 g dried cranberries coarsely chopped
- 2 tbsp milk you may need slightly more
- sprinkle sugar optional extra for sprinkling
Instructions
- Using the food processor, mix the butter, icing sugar, orange zest and vanilla extract until light and fluffy. Tip into a large bowl and add the sifted flours, cranberries and rub mixture as if making shortcrust pastry until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
- Spoon over the milk and bring the breadcrumb mixture together into a ball.
- Divide into 2-3 balls to make the mixture easier to manage. Knead the balls of dough on a floured surface until smooth then roll into logs around 6-7cm in diameter. Wrap each log with parchment paper and place in a freezer bag in the fridge for about 1 hour until firm or freeze until needed (up to 1 month).
- Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 160c and line a couple of baking trays with parchment paper.
- When the logs have firmed up, unwrap them and using a sharp knife cut into slices 1cm thick. Place about 3cm apart on the baking trays and bake for around 18-20 minutes until just golden. Cool on wire racks.
Notes
Adapted from Australian Women's Weekly "The Complete Book of Cupcakes, Cheesecakes and Cookies" (I would give you a link but bizarrely, Amazon don't appear to stock it)
Wow are you ever brave! I'd love to hear how it went – and how you got roped into trying out! These are great cookies and love orange cranberry.
These look like nice thick, crunchy cookies – delicious
I love your photography – the blue background with white dots worked very well against the biscuits. The recipe is not overly complicated either, I should try this next time I have people over for tea. I love Victoria Sponge Cake (a bit boring I know but so comforting) and that is what i bake for tea most times. I think everyone appreciates home made cakes or biscuits with their tea.